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Critical & Creative Thinking Graduate Program
=Reflective Practice and Metacognitive Portfolios=

Contents: Rationale, Mechanics, Index Of Portfolios. See also [|CCT Website], cct wiki.

//**As of 8/28/09 this wiki has been moved to http://cctrpp.wikispaces.umb.edu and no further changes will be made on this wiki**//



Rationale
A portfolio often means a display for others of achievements, but the "Reflective Practice and Metacognitive Portfolio" is designed to be a self-customized tool box and set of reminders that students intend to use in their on-going learning and practice, including their work beyond/after CCT. Asking students to build this kind of portfolio during their studies matches the goals of personal and professional development captured by the Program overview, excerpted below (from http://www.cct.umb.edu/overview.html), with emphasis added here. This is a pilot program; it is not (yet) a formal requirement for the M.A. (last update 20 June 08)

> The Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) program at the University of Massachusetts Boston provides its students with //knowledge, tools//, experience, and support so they can //become constructive, reflective agents of change// in education, work, social movements, science, and creative arts.

> Critical thinking, creative thinking, and reflective practice are valued, of course, in all fields. In critical thinking we seek to scrutinize the assumptions, reasoning, and evidence brought to bear on an issue-by others and by oneself; such scrutiny is enhanced by placing ideas and practices in tension with alternatives. Key functions of creative thinking include generating alternative ideas, practices, and solutions that are unique and effective, and exploring ways to confront complex, messy, ambiguous problems, make new connections, and see how things could be otherwise. In //reflective practice we take risks and experiment in putting ideas into practice, then take stock of the outcomes and revise our approaches accordingly//.

> The rationale for a distinct Masters and Certificate program of study in CCT is that an explicit and //sustained focus on learning and applying ideas and tools// in critical thinking, creative thinking, and reflective practice allows students involved in a wide array of professions and endeavors to //develop clarity and confidence to make deep changes// in their learning, teaching, work, activism, research, and artistry. By the time CCT students finish their studies they //are prepared to teach or guide others [and themselves] in ways that often depart markedly from their previous schooling and experience//.

> In these processes of transformation and transfer, CCT students have to //select and adapt the ideas and tools presented by faculty// with diverse disciplinary and interdisciplinary concerns. Although each CCT course is self-contained and is open to students from other graduate programs, students matriculated in the Program benefit from extended relationships with core CCT faculty and fellow students that support their process-learning-experimenting and taking risks in applying what they are learning, reflecting on the outcomes and revising accordingly, and //building up a set of tools, practices, and perspectives that work in their specific professional or personal endeavors//. 

Mechanics
Portfolio = Narrative + Exhibits. Exhibits include each of the components from the required courses plus optional additions from any other course. Excerpts from the exhibits may be woven into the narrative.

The portfolio should be updated each semester or two (depending on how quickly the student is moving through the program). With each update, additions should be made to the narrative. Sometimes, however, the previous narrative will be superceded and the old version might become an exhibit to show the student's evolving process.

The portfolio can be assembled in a number of ways: as an all-in-one word/pdf file; as a wikipage on which the student presents a narrative that includes links to exhibit files (uploaded either on a personal wikispace or on this CCTRPP wikispace), or in other forms (e.g., RPP on a personal website, such as Jan Coe's below).

All wikipages and uploaded files created and linked by students __on this wiki__ must begin with the student's initials in uppercase. (If the initials have already been "taken" by a previous student, add an extra letter in lower case, e.g., PTa for Peter Taylor.)

A show-and-tell introduction will be part of all CCT orientations, and supplemented by general introductions to using a wiki that might be given in specific courses or by more experienced peers. 

Index of Portfolios
(To students: Insert a link to the your portfolio in alphabetical order by your last name. This link may be to your narrative page on this wiki, to a narrative page you create on your own wikispace, to the uploaded all-in-one word/pdf file, or to a personal website version of your RPP.

Jan Coe Jeremy Szteiter Renessa Ciampa Tara Tetzlaff